Shall we make a FAQ?

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In the interest of inviting participation, I have decided to post the vB code of the FAQ. Hack 'n slash people. Make your ideas a reality. I have to be frank here. (Whatever you say, Frank.) I'm getting burned out. This is hard work, and many backs will lighten the load.

Code: 
(Grrr.  It didn't work.)

I was hoping that the code tags would supress the other formatting tags.
No such luck.
I'll save it as a text file and put it on the FTP server when I get home.
 
If you feel up to condensing what you have so far into a new thread I will sticky it (assuming it's ready before I have to leave for the work thing)......we can keep this one as the "working copy"
 
XLShadow said:
the audio forum is ALWAYS flooded with noobie "WHAT SOUNDCARD?" / "WHAT SPEAKERS?" threads
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I encourage discussion on the matter.
XLShadow said:
maybe it would be better to break the FAQ into parts ... and start some drafts.
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I've been thinking similar things. MisterX let me know that he is discouraged from making too many threads sticky. An option might be to have a single sticky FAQ thread (when final) contain the "How to ask questions" and recommended hardware as the first post, the "dealing with [soundcard(s)]" as post #2, the ripping guide as #3, speaker shopping tips as #4, etc. It is my hope that this will make it readable, but still keep the number of sticky threads to a minimum.
XLShadow said:
keep in mind we want the noobs to actually READ it so keep (it) ...short.
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Believe it or not, I’ve tried to do this. Tonight, I will post a link to a text file of the FAQ in plaintext vBcode on the server. All are welcome to edit the document and post thier versions. We can discuss the merits of each among ourselves and I'll try to incorporate successful edits into the working version. My feelings will not be hurt by this.
XLShadow said:
driver guide anyone? stuff like proper install/removal, stable versions, 3rd party, links
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Yes! Would anyone like to write a guide to dealing with creative drivers? They are by far the most common aftermarket soundcard brand, and they also have a labyrinthine array of software to configure their hardware. I invite this. For the purposes of brevity, I think we should restrict the driver advice to only the most common hardware, such as Creative, Soundmax, (others?).
XLShadow said:
we want to educate people in to understanding WHY...
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I really do agree, however I learned from my attempts with the short history of the nForce, that the desire to explain why and the desire for brevity and readability are often at cross-purposes. I think that readability should be the overriding goal of the document. I feel that threads addressing "Why?" are not all that frequent, honestly. It would kind of be refreshing to see some in the wild.
 
Just lemme know how I can help. Starting with the "how to ask questions" sounds like the best place to start.
In addition to what we have already (godsmadclown's first post) I suggest:

Asking For Audio Technical Support
If you are looking for technical support be sure to to post as much information about your computer's hardware, operating system, software involved, aduio hardware, how eveything is connected and how to recreate the problem. Too much information is better then too little. Please be as clear as possiable and don't over do it with abbreviations and chatroom acronyms.​

(the last two lines kinda apply to any question :rolleyes: )

I was also thinking about starting with a disclaimer. Stuff like "the subjective nature of audio makes it hard to just TELL people what to do" or "remember the golden rule; if it sounds good to you, great"
The FAQs are going to benifit the random forum visitor the most so thats who I'm keeping in mind.
 
Or, as Duke Ellington said, "If it sounds good, it is good."

[edit]

I like the idea of a disclaimer. I think it should be in the "how to ask for equipment recommendations" section.

I've put the raw vB code of the post here.
 
Sigh.....
The Computer audio FAQ is now a "how to ask for help" and how to rip your audio files as one big lossless track FAQ?
I think you guys are begining to lose sight of the purpose of this FAQ.
Helping people.

Forgive me if I seem to critical here but my idea of a FAQ is something like this:

Question: Do I need the cable that connects my CDROM drive to my soundcard?

Answer: All current versions of Microsoft Windows support digital audio extraction, which makes the analog cable redundant. However, there is a convince factor with the analog cable that some may find useful. On CDROM drives that feature multiple buttons it is possible to playback audio CD's without any software.

Question: where do I place my speaker so they sound the best?

Answer: Trial and error. Because there are so many variables we cannot hope to cover in this FAQ the best way to answer that question is for you to figure out what speaker placement works best for you.

Step one: Read the manual.
Step two. Position the speakers as best you can in a circular pattern around your normal listening position.
Step three: Occupy said listening position and check your results with an audio track you know well.
Step four: adjust position of speakers until they sound the BEST TO YOUR EARS.




Question: How do I connect my 5.1 speakers to my sound card.

Answer:
Sep one: Read the product manual.
Step two: Turn off the PC.
Step three: Plug the Black connector on the speakers wiring harness into the Black jack on the speakers.
Step Four: Plug the green connector on the speakers wiring harness into the green jack on the speakers.
Step Five: Plug the orange connector on the speakers wiring harness into the orange jack on the speakers.

And so on.....

Again, I am just an interested bystander here so feel free to ignore my input.
I will sticky whatever you guys submit as the NEW FAQ. :)
 
Hey BO(V)BZ, I just followed your guide to make a FLAC rip, although I did use EAC secure mode and all went great. One suggestion I would make though is that using that Foobar Special, it requires that you have WMP9 installed or at least the WMP9 runtime. I kept getting errors for foo_wma.dll and wmvCreateSyncReader on foobar startup, even though I disabled wma in associations. For people like myself who would rather not have WMP9 on their machines, you could download the runtime installer called wmfdist.exe. Just google it. I spent a good half hour trying to figure out what was going on.

Other than that bit of a snag, it all worked great, although I do wish there was a way to automatically name the *.mka file so I wouldn't have to do it. But I'm just lazy like that. :p

Also, I was only able to find mkvtoolnix-0.9.2.rar, not the 0.9.1, so this might make a difference, but you say you only need mkvmerge.exe to be in the system32 folder, but I had to also move libebml.dll to make the whole process work.
 
Odoe,

Thanks a lot for trying that out! I'll revise that later tonight with some more info about the ripping process, and about the WMA stuff, it's been so long I forgot about it. Also, they must have just come out with a new version of MKVtoolnix, so that is why it would be different.

Appreciate the help =]
 
Mister X said:
I think you guys are begining to lose sight of the purpose of this FAQ.
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It does say Moderator under you name right? Don't act so humble... ;) We are mindless sheep in need of a shepherd.
And your totally right, we are off track. We can condence the asking questions into one part and post it at the end. Hmmm, questions I get asked all the time...

My mic is not working. (I do this for myself all the time)
  1. Be sure its pluged into the right jack ( :D most of the time, this fixes eveything)
  2. Be sure its making good contact. For good measure pull it out and plug it back in. It should go in with a nice tactile click. (If its too loose, your mic jack may be bad and you might need a new soundcard or a sodering iron :p )
  3. Are you using kx-drivers? No: Continue to next like. Yes: Jump to kx-section.
  4. Open up the Control Pannel.
  5. For Windows XP (classic view): Open Sounds and Audio Devices. For Windows 2000: Open Sounds and Multimedia. (They are both icons of a speaker)
  6. Click on the Audio tab.
  7. Make sure the proper soundcard is selected for Sound recording. Click on the Volume... button. (The middle one. Right under the soundcard pull down) This will bring up the recording volumes.
  8. Check to make sure if the Microphone is selected for recording and the volume is about half way up.
  9. Go into Options > Advanced Controls. An Advanced button should appear under the mic slider. Click it (if you can, not all soundcards support this) and make sure Microphone +20dB Boost box is checked. This is required for microphones that ONLY plug into the soundcard. (If your mic has its own power cord or is powered by an amplifier, you'll want this unchecked)
  10. Close all windows, we are done here. You can adjust volume here after the loopback test.

kx-drivers mic setup
kx-drivers have a different setup because the kx-mixer replaces the windows sndvol32.exe
  1. I need to get back to this one...

Now we need to test what is called a loopback: we make sure the soundcard is reading the mic by playing what you say over your own speakers.
  1. Open the Playback volume mixer. For most people, double clicking on the speaker icon in the system tray will take you there. (If not, try typing in sndvol32 in the Run box)
  2. Microphone isn't one of the slider bars by default; go into Options > Properties.
  3. Set the master volume down to zero.
  4. Unmute the microphone.
  5. Repeat a test phrase into the mike, "check check 1 2 3" while you slowly turn up the master volume. Stop when you hear your self over the speakers.
    If you cannot hear yourself even after maxing all the volume sliders, stop. Something is wrong with your hardware. Test the mic on another known-to-work soundcard. Also try reinstalling / updating drivers and try loopback testing again.
  6. Mute the microphone for playback and close the volume mixer. For chat/voice commands/recording you shouldn't have to hear yourself over the speakers. This was just a test to make sure it is now working.

this isn't too much is it? I know we should keep the FAQ lite but I didn't want to gloss over anything. Is there any fat I can cut out?
I couldn't remember the Duke Ellington quote and I wasn't even close enough for it to pop up in google. :eek:
 
Mister X said:
Sigh...
Again, I am just an interested bystander here so feel free to ignore my input.
I will sticky whatever you guys submit as the NEW FAQ. :)
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I have attempted to rehabilitate the document by taking out much of the cruft that doesn't really get asked. Honestly, thanks for the critisism.
 
Should I make a tutorial on how to get LP's into mp3's or another file format, I dunno if its needed but thats what I needed a while ago.
 
You can write the guide if yuo want. I don't think that it has a place in the FAQ though. I don't think that the question is frequent enough.
 
So perhaps I could put it into another thread and you could link to it here?
 
You could write another thread, sure. This thread is really more of a working draft, however. Write your guide. If you have knowledge that you want to share, then you can write it up. Be sure to save it to your local machine, and to another online location. THis forum is none too reliable. Maybe this vinyl guide and the lossless as one file guide can be merged at some point in a future document. It will not be in the FAQ, however. I've come to see MisterX's point that it should be reserved for only the most frequent of the frequently asked questions.
 
Dunno. It stalled I guess. I made as much as I cared to. It seemed not to find favor with the masses. DO you have any suggestions?
 
after reading this thread from start to finish again.... you do have a nice foundation for a faq.
Care to finish it? :D
 
Sigh... I guess so. I'm looking for a job here soon. Damned contract is under reauthorization, and the workload has fallen through the frickin' floor. I'm tempted to put the stupid thing on my resume. I'll get started on Monday when I've nothing else to do at work besides writing cover letters.
 
So, do you like the verbose style, or do you like the terse q&a style? I"m a verbose guy. I can try to be Q&A terse, but ... I gotta be me. I gotta let my freak SAT-word vocab flag fly.
 
You know, I think that the Q&A style is the best. How often do we see people asking 'how to I get 5.1 thru my coax in games?' and other questions that are just permutations on the same theme, over and over again? Most people don't seem to care for the reasons too much, they just want something that'll take less than 30sec to read and understand.
 
I'm trying to teach the noobs how to fish, dangit...

In other news, I added a link to an article describing how to hack Creative Drivers. WIll this raise trouble with "The Man"?

I looked over the FAQ, and I really could use some help in getting the questions trimmed down.
 
GodsMadClown said:
In other news, I added a link to an article describing how to hack Creative Drivers. WIll this raise trouble with "The Man"?
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There's discussions about hacking readeons to act like other radeons...don't see why you can't post your little hack for sound cards...tell us your little secrets...
 
Metallica_Band said:
There's discussions about hacking readeons to act like other radeons...don't see why you can't post your little hack for sound cards...tell us your little secrets...
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If you want to host the driver cd then by all means I will pen a how to. :)
 
Thats the old guide Clown dude :)D) ....
The new one is how to use the Audigy 2 ZS drivers on your Audigy2 and IIRC it's a sticky on Driverheaven but the links are dead.
 
Mister X said:
If you want to host the driver cd then by all means I will pen a how to. :)
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Depending on how many people want it, and its legality, I would be willing to set up and seed a torrent. My old computer is set up as a FAH box and personal pr0n server ;)

(no not the real server the pics are hosted on)
 
Cool.
The how to is easy.... download the iso born it to a cd and pop it in the drive. :D
I will mail you the CD on Monday Zach.
 
Ok I am having trouble figuring out how to make the torrent. It looked like it was going to be easy, but it is not. Here is the thread about it

Does anyone have any other ideas? Or recommendations for a free ftp server program?
 
'tis official. I've got lots of work to do. Two people have left, and our workload has increased. This means the lazy hazy days of summer where I would do about 60 min of work in a day have ended. This means that I've got to hang up this read-headed step-child of a FAQ. I can see why our Ducky got frustrated. It's harder than it looks. If anyone wants to look after it, I'd be perfectly willing to help out.

In other news, the daughter of the project director, otherwise known as our poor excuse for an IT director, has gone on to scuttle some other company's project. Good riddance. The new IT director is very cool. When I (hypothetically) asked what might happen if I installed a new soundcard on my workstation, he shrugged and told me that what he (hypothetically) didn't know wouldn't hurt him. So, I picked up a refurb AV-710 from 'da Egg for $16 and I should soon be leaving the hinterlands of integrated Intel sound. My MisterX PiMeta deserves better signal than that offered by the likes of Dell.

I'm off to hash out database crap with a new listen to my music.

Laters.
 
So I just want to clear my mind up...

It is possible to connect a home theater sound set up(speakers and sub which are not really designed for computers like Klipsch Promedias) to my Audigy 2 ZS?
 
DeViLdUdE said:
So I just want to clear my mind up...

It is possible to connect a home theater sound set up(speakers and sub which are not really designed for computers like Klipsch Promedias) to my Audigy 2 ZS?
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Not without some kind of amplifier. ;)
 
I was never able to figure out how to get my torrent working :(

If anyone has any other ideas let me know
 
zachary80 said:
I was never able to figure out how to get my torrent working :(

If anyone has any other ideas let me know
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You just kidding or are you serious asking that ques???


For misterX:
What do you mean without an ampli?? So that means its possible??
 
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